Bertone Runabout is no city car: radical 469bhp open-top dream machine revealed
Production version of legendary sixties concept is based on the Lotus Exige, and costs over £400,000
This is the new Bertone Runabout: a modern interpretation of the Italian design house’s radical, speedboat-inspired concept, which was revealed nearly six decades ago and is finally going to hit the road.
The roofless and doorless ‘Autobianchi A112 Runabout’ concept was designed by Marcello Gandini – the man who penned the Lamborghini Miura and Lancia Stratos. It was originally presented in 1969 and featured a tiny 1.1-litre engine.
The distinctive wedge-shaped silhouette did go on to influence Fiat's X1/9 sports car in the seventies. However, this new version is much more faithful to the original concept and it shares a lot of key components not with a Fiat, but with the Lotus Exige.
The Runabout is not based on a battered, high-mileage donor car like some restomods, though, because that’s not what this is. Like coachbuilt cars of old, all the parts on this car are factory fresh and each of the 25 examples that will be made will have a new VIN number.
Underneath the carbon-fibre bodywork is a lightweight bonded aluminum chassis and a supercharged 3.5-litre V6 that’s been fettled to produce 469bhp and 490Nm of torque. All that power goes to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox, and with the car only weighing a little over 1,000kg, it can sprint from 0-62mph in 4.1 seconds.
That’s quicker than the Lotus Emira, which is available with the same supercharged V6 engine and six-speed manual gearbox through the Auto Express Buy A Car service.
Bertone has also refined and modernised the original concept’s design by, for instance, incorporating an S-duct like you’ll find on the Ferrari 296 into the extremely low and pointed front end. Plus the car has pop-up headlights and wheelarches that look like they’ve been moulded around the forged aluminum wheels, which were inspired by those on the 1969 concept.
There are a couple of versions of the Runabout, too: the one you see here is the Targa, with removable panels for sunny days when those very lucky customers want to feel the wind in their hair, or there’s the Barchetta, which is a roofless speedster like the original concept for the ultimate open-air driving experience.
Andrea Mocellin, the lead designer on the new Runabout project, said: “Our intention from the beginning was to translate the essence of the 1969 Runabout into a car that feels entirely relevant today.”
He explained, “Rather than treating history as a set of shapes to copy, we approached it as a set of values to reinterpret. The 1969 Runabout was audacious, experimental, and refreshingly simple – those qualities became our north star. We carried the spirit forward, not the styling.”
Meanwhile, the Runabout’s interior is very pared back, with just a few buttons dotted around and a slim digital driver’s display behind the two-spoke steering wheel. But Bertone says it’s still supposed to feel luxurious, thanks to precision-machined aluminum and lots of leather. There’s also some fascinating details including the exposed linkage for the shifter and a marine compass sitting on top of the dashboard as a nod to the concept.
Each Bertone Runabout will cost upwards of £400,000, and customers will be able to create something unique with the help of Bertone’s Centro Stile design team. The car will be shown to the public for the first time at Rétromobile 2026 in Paris, France.
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